.
Leah watched as he looked at her with a lazy grin. His green eyes found hers before he spoke. “Don’t move,” he commanded.
She tightened her fingers on the bedpost. It was only fair since she’d taken control downstairs. “Very well.” But she had no clue how he thought to get her out of her dress with her arms stretched this way.
Still, she watched as he unbuttoned her, the overused and aged fabric coming apart easily. Then his hands went underneath her collar and slid over her shoulders. He bent his head and kissed her throat. His rough cheek grazed her skin and sent spikes of sensation down her body. She tightened her fingers on the bedpost once more and his hands slid down her hips and then around her back. She was jerked to attention when she heard ripping and then more. The sound of breaking material in the silence. He held her eyes and then the dress fell from her body like discarded rags. He untied her corset and she gently stepped out of it. Then her chemise along with it, shredded to nothing, and sweeping over her skin like a whisper.
“Will you be replacing that gown as well?” she asked.
He didn’t even smile. His focus was too intent on her body. His nostrils flared at her nudity. His gaze and voice darkened. “Oh, I intend to replace the dress with something.” He stepped forward again and this time his mouth landed just above her breast, teasing the skin there before trailing down and taking her nipple between his lips. He sucked.
She shook and fought the urge to grab him. His hands were everywhere, down her hips, over her rear, up her back, touching her gently and with a patience that said they had all night. All the while, he pulled her nipple taut before moving to the other. The wet and abandoned nipple began to cool in the room’s air, but then his hand was there. He palmed her before claiming her nipple.
She shrieked as pleasure nearly made her knees buckle. She could feel the essence of her desire sliding down her thighs and curled her body forward so that he’d know where she needed to be touched next.
His hand seemed to understand her silent complaint and trailed from her nipple, over her stomach, and through the small patch of curls between her thighs until they found gold. He circled her, and she screamed.
He bit her nipple, and she came hard, sure that she’d woken his driver and praying the man didn’t try to come to her rescue.
Sometime later, she became aware that her hands were at her sides and she was being carried somewhere. Her back hit the bed and then William was kneeling over her.
She lifted her hands and ran them over his strong shoulders, lazily feeling and enjoying the evidence of his strength.
He was gazing down at her then he bent over to kiss her. Once. Twice. He lifted again and met her eyes. “I want to remove the wig.”
“No.” She gripped his hips and moved so that he was positioned between her legs. She didn’t want this night to end, but it would if he insisted.
He looked at the light on the nightstand and then returned his eyes to her. “I’ll dim the lights.”
“No.”
“I’ll turn them out.”
“Then what’s the point?” she asked.
“I want to touch you everywhere.” His hand moved her thigh then grabbed her knee and pushed it to the side, exposing her. “Even if I can’t see you. I want to touch all of you.” His fingers went to her pleasure-soaked patch and brushed her most sensitive skin.
She hissed and twisted her fingers in the sheets. Her thoughts vanished, and she moaned.
“Let me touch you, Leah.” He bathed his fingers in her essence and then pushed one inside. Her muscles contracted, and she gasped. He made slow love to her with that finger and then it was joined by a second. He picked up his pace but never allowed his eyes to leave hers.
“I want to taste you,” he said, his muscles bunching with his movement, his fingers stroking her in the most intimate way.
She couldn’t speak. She only moaned through it.
“Do you want that?” His hands didn’t slow their speed and his words caused a thrilling ache. “Shall I taste you, Leah?”
“Yes!” She was bound to break at any moment, to beg and plead.
“The wig first.” He kissed her and then his mouth trailed down her chin, throat, her breast. “I’ll turn off the lights if you swear to take it off.” His fingers had slowed just enough to annoy her, keeping her gratification just out of reach.
She tried to think, but it was so hard. “Lights out first.”
He moved with the speed of lighting. His hands left her and then the lights were gone.
Only the fire still remained, and its distance put them both in shadows. She could barely make him out, which irritated her. She liked seeing him. He was far too beautiful to wear clothes.
“Remove the wig.”
Her heart raced, but she reached up and did as she’d agreed. The wig came off easily and not a second after she placed it on the nightstand, his hands were in her hair, his fingers scraping her scalp before threading through the heavy mass.
“It feels beautiful,” he whispered. “I don’t see how you could hide it.”
She closed her eyes at the joy of having him touch her this way. She felt adored just by having his hands in her hair. She’d never known such a thing could be. She almost regretted that she had to wear the wig. She found his face in the dark and kissed him.
He gave her his mouth but then moved it away. She thought to fight him, but when she began to feel his mouth elsewhere, she recalled her agreement just as quickly as her body awoke.
His mouth led a hot trail to where she wanted him, and he wasted no time in spreading her folds and licking her nub.
She snapped her back into an arch at the undeniably wonderful delight of having him kiss her this way. His mouth devoured her, and his rough tongue lapped at her like a lazy cat as she came.
Then he was over her again, positioning himself at her sensitive folds before he grabbed the back of her head and fisted her hair.
She managed to grab his shoulders before he drove into her and seated himself deeply. They both took a breath and then they were mating like the wildest of beings. Soreness was replaced by a craving so crude that Leah heard herself moaning like a caged animal as she tried to get close.
He tightened his hold on her hair and with his other hand on her hip, stroked even deeper and harder with a precision that had Leah seeing stars in the shadows. The slapping of wet flesh and their ragged breathing grew and moved in harmony with the brutal force of their lovemaking.
Leah reached completion first. Never before had she come so many times. William followed, his muscles straining under her arms before he groaned. And then, all at once, he relaxed and fell upon her, keeping most of his weight on his arms.
She stroked his hair as his breath bathed her throat. Then she felt his hand slide from her hair only to massage her head. She moaned in satisfaction.
He flipped them over, and she rested her head on his chest. His continued attention to her hair made her smile. He was like a child who’d found a new toy.
But it was not a toy he could play with all night. Perhaps she could spare another hour, but then she would have to leave.
His hand eventually slid to her hip. “Could you sleep without the wig?”
Sleep? “You told Sudworth that you’d return me to the House.”
He turned to face her even though they couldn’t see one another. “Yes, but I only said I would get you there safely. I never said when.” His arms cradled her and pulled her closer into the hard wall of his body. “Stay with me.”
How could she resist? She was, after all, his first guest, and she liked the idea of leaving her mark. “Only if I put on the wig.”
He tightened his hold for a moment, but then relaxed.
She went for the wig as he broke the silence once again.
“Do you really need to hide your hair from me? What difference would it make?”
All the difference in the world. What would he do if he found out he’d just made love to Natalia Hext? They’d been friends, but she’d not always been kind to him. Would he be upset? Could he keep her secret from Julius? There were too many variables to think about it tonight, and she was far too exhausted.
With her hair situated once more, she snuggled close to him. “Don’t ask me questions I can’t answer.”
She knew he’d let it go at his next comment. “I believe I owe you another dress.”
She smiled in the blackened room, but it rang clear in her voice. “Oh, I believe you paid in full for it.” The valley between her thighs tingled at the memory of his mouth.
He chuckled, and his hands slid to her bottom, pulling her closer. She gasped as her stomach met his hard cock.
“But you…” Her words trailed off, too amazed that he was aroused again and so quickly… even as her own body began to melt from the inside out. The thought of having him again had her squeezing her legs together.
“I want you too much.” He hooked her thigh over his and, within seconds, was inside her again. “Leah, I don’t think I’ll never get enough of you.” His hold on her was tight, but his strokes were gentle.
“Then don’t,” she whispered, so low she wasn’t sure he’d heard her, but that didn’t matter, because he was loving with far too much finesse for her to think anymore.
They made love twice more that night, with her on her back and then with her on her knees. He’d removed her wig somewhere through it all and Leah didn’t care. She became a feral creature with him inside of her, pistoning into her body as though he planned to come out the other side. Her voice gave out within an hour and her body just before dawn, but not before she felt William’s final caress, heard his last whispers, and allowed herself to be Natalia Hext, a woman in love with the man of her dreams for a few more minutes… before securing her wig back in place.